Sectarian strife

WHILE the NFWP goes up in flames because of the military operation there, a traditional war is also playing out. There is no other report of any other traditional war breaking out, but sectarian ones are alive and well. Take for example the sectarian strife in the Kurram Agency, in the Parachinar area, where only on Thursday no less than 18 lives were lost in addition to about a score of injured. What Pakistan does not need at the moment is any sort of sectarian trouble, because it must focus its energies on the twin problems it faces, economic and that of extremism. The first problem it shares with everyone, the second only with some countries. In the second problem, any attempt to induce sectarian feeling or even to exploit old feeling, will only be counter-productive.